CIT Blog - Keeping reputation through responsible sourcing

The recent legal cases concerning breaches of the European Timber Regulation (EUTR), in the UK and in Holland, are a stark reminder of the timber sector’s obligations in moral and legal terms. The two cases involved companies at different points of the supply chain, with differing cases against them, and markedly differing levels of punishment.

The first involved high street furniture chain Lombok. It was charged with not having conducted sufficient due diligence over the importation of a single item of furniture – a sideboard from India. There was no allegation that the item itself contained illegally harvested material. The charge was simply that insufficient due diligence had been conducted to confidently state it was of “negligible risk” – a clear legal requirement before placing goods on the market.

The second case, in Holland, did involve illegally harvested material. The Dutch authorities have ruled that Boogaerdt Hout placed illegally sourced teak from Myanmar onto the market. The company has been given two months to clear the material out of its supply chain or face fines of EUR20,000 per cubic metre. This follows a similar case in Sweden last year concerning Teak from Myanmar.

Both show the importance of conducting strict due diligence throughout timber supply chains. Without this in place how can one safely say there is, or is not, “negligible risk” to the materials we place on the market.

If we cannot say there is negligible risk, then we cannot say the timber we are selling is safe, and the reputation of the entire timber sector is called into question. In the minds of much of the public all timber is the same. Even Kevin McCloud made this mistake with his comments at UK Construction Week, despite the construction sector largely being served by certified European timber.

The real crime here though is that, as 21st century business regulation goes, compliance with the EUTR is relatively straightforward. It is a flexible, business friendly approach which allows companies to make their own judgements on their own supply chains. It doesn’t prevent trade, it enables it on a level playing field basis.

It’s why we are lobbying the Government to maintain the EUTR post-Brexit, and through the CTI’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Timber Industries, have got several politicians to ask questions in the house confirming the government’s future commitment.

We want to keep the reputation of the timber sector very high. The way to do that is to engage fully with the process of due diligence, make it simple and effective and be proud to demonstrate and articulate what we’re doing. The TTF will be reviewing its own Responsible Purchasing Policy (RPP) processes and mechanisms again in 2018 and working with Government and the Timber Industries APPG to ensure that regulation is something that we help design ourselves, rather than something which is imposed.